Helldrakes

If you take a closer look at the
Rules Cyclopaedia or the Master DM's book (or in the Mystara
Monstrous Compendium Appendix, for that matter), you will notice
something very interesting -- although the drake is described as
resembling a dragon, nowhere in any rule set is it actually stated
that drakes are related to dragons. In terms of game mechanics, the
only real difference between drakes in PC 1 and in other sources is
that the drakes in PC 1 have the "Invisibility to Mortals" and
"Second Sight" abilities.

I would suggest that, just as the
humanoid forms of drakes are based on those of real humanoid races,
their drake forms are based on those of real creatures that were
related to dragons. Just as mandrakes can fool humans into
believing into believing that they (mandrakes) are human, it is
also possible for dragons to mistake them for distant relatives.
However, the fear aura given off by dragons would prevent those
drakes who remember their origins (and thus have the unique fairy
abilities from PC 1) from daring to try to pass for dragon-kin--
but those drakes who have forgotten their origins would have no
such difficulty.

As for the "helldrakes" suggested in
an earlier post, they are fairly easy to extrapolate from the
existing drakes. I would suggest that they are dark red in colour
in their natural forms, and originally had a single beastman form
that they could assume. However, since the descendants of the
beast- men have now evolved into distinct goblinoid races, the
helldrakes have kept up. To determine the goblinoid forms that a
helldrake can assume, roll d6 twice:

1 kobold
2 goblin
3 orc
4 hobgoblin
5 bugbear
6 ogre

Drakes in goblinoid form appear as
adults unless they look like bugbears ("teenager", 6' tall) or
ogres ("youngster", 7' tall).

(Gnolls were omitted because of
their relatively recent origin, while trolls were omitted because
drakes do not make very convincing trolls without the ability to
regenerate damage.)

If the same race is rolled twice,
then the drake has only one form -- but he spends most of his time
in that form and may even have power and influence among his
supposed kind. If his goblinoid form is that of a bugbear or ogre,
then experience will eventually enable him to look older but not
larger -- he will always remain a "runt".

Helldrakes prefer to live in warm to
hot subterranean conditions. Like other drakes, they are
omnivorous, highly intelligent, have treasure type R (E), AC 0,
movement 12 (3 (D) flying), are immune to spells of 4th level or
less, have steady (12) morale, and have the abilities of 5th level
thieves.

Helldrakes have 2 hit dice, attack
in natural form with claws and teeth for 1d2/1d2/1d4 damage, and
are highly variable in size, measuring anywhere from 3' (size S) to
7' (size L) in length. As renegades from drake society, most are
lawful in alignment, although a few (those with only one goblinoid
form available) are neutral. In AD&D terms, more are evil than
good. XP award for defeating helldrakes is 175.